The Texans were clear they appreciated how Foster conducted himself in the last year of his contract (the anti-Chris Johnson thing), and Foster apparently was very happy to remain a Texan. You have to like hearing:

“Arian is thrilled….it was very important to Arian that he show the proper respect for the team, the organization and the city. He loves being a Houston Texan, he loves living in the city of Houston, he adores the fans.”

This just made so much sense. Yes, the Texans system is good for running backs. Yes, Arian Foster could likely contribute for any number of teams. But it would have just been wrong for him to go somewhere else. Just wrong.

Silence being golden. Yet another example of the Texans quietly doing their bit without leaks.

Kudos to GM Rick Smith. And Vice President, Football Administration (cap guy) Chris Olsen. McCartney couldn’t have been any more complimentary about Smith. So often we crush people when things go poorly but ignore things when they go well, so I pass this along. He still has a lot more to do these days.

A Special Back. I know I’ve mentioned this before, but there are some on this staff who were with Denver back in the day who were upset when Clinton Portis was traded to the Redskins. Yes, Champ Bailey has been productive a long time at a premium position, but they believe Portis was a special back for their system.

Foster does all the things that you need a back to do in this system. He has great vision. Solid size for his position. Plays through injuries. Blocks, receives. Draws defensive attention. Runs the tough yards when everyone knows he is likely going to get the ball.

Now let’s wrap him in bubble wrap.

Personality. I’ve mentioned this before but I will put this in the blog post. Arian Foster is a great ambassador for the team. Great player, great personality. There are plenty of players for the Texans who are interesting people, but outside of the city, the organization and its players were seen as vanilla. That’s not a totally terrible thing given how much *interesting* these days often translates into nasty and controversial.

When a player is so good at his job and is also a fun personality, that’s special and worth mentioning. Relative to the rest of the teams in the league, the Texans are still developing their history and their identity. How beautiful it is that Foster’s signature move after TDs is namaste, which to oversimplify is a demonstration of the flow of love and respect.

So you are paying for his performance, but you also get the perk of him being one of the faces of the franchise.

Favorite Arian Foster Blog Posts. One of my favorite blog posts comes from before his first full season. Outsiders were not believing that this undrafted free agent Foster would be the Texans starter no matter how much you told them that he was. Through blog comments, I found out that Foster wrote poetry, and he was kind enough to send me some.

Then after Foster put up 231 yards, 3 TDs against the Colts in the first game of that season, I asked you to write love poetry to him. It is very funny to read those comments.

Exuberantly Happy. When cool things happen during games, everybody celebrates together. When cool things happen with contracts, all you can do is write a silly blog post and do a virtual fist bump.

The best way to describe this feeling is to watch this video. I suggest watching through until the end. It might be one of the most remarkable things on YouTube. It’s like watching a 8 year old boy if they were very gifted at music. Or someone on the sort of drugs I am not familiar with.

And now we need Chris Myers to be signed to make the day better and more like the out of control joy of this video. Any displays of exuberance you wish to share or anything else?